News tagged with gene mutation

Gene mutation discovery sparks hope for effective endometriosis screening

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have, for the first time, described the genetic basis of endometriosis, a condition affecting millions of women that is marked by chronic pelvic pain and infertility. ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Rare mutations may help explain aneurysm in high-risk families

An innovative approach to genome screening has provided clues about rare mutations that may make people susceptible to brain aneurysms, predisposing them to brain bleeds, according to preliminary late-breaking research presented ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Same genes linked to early- and late-onset Alzheimer's disease

The same gene mutations linked to inherited, early-onset Alzheimer's disease have been found in people with the more common late-onset form of the illness.

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Chaos in the cell's command center

A defective operating system is never a good thing. Like computers, our cells depend on operating systems to drive normal functions. Gene expression programs comprise the software code our cells rely on, with each cell type ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Gene mutation in autism found to cause hyperconnectivity in brain's hearing center

New research from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) might help explain how a gene mutation found in some autistic individuals leads to difficulties in processing auditory cues and paying spatial attention to sound.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jan 31, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Gene mutation is linked to accumulation of fat, other lipids in liver

A team of scientists from the University of Utah and the University of California at San Francisco has discovered that the mutation of a gene encoding a ketone body transporter triggers accumulation of fat and other lipids ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Jan 31, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study finds mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumors

Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumor of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumors have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Jan 29, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Evolved, mutated gene module linked to Joubert syndrome

A team led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports that newly discovered mutations in an evolved assembly of genes cause Joubert syndrome, a form of syndromic autism.

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Flu transmission work is urgent: Nature Comment

The author of an upcoming Nature paper about H5N1 argues in a Nature Comment article today that research into deadly pathogenic viruses must continue if pandemics are to be prevented. Yoshihiro Kawaoka suggests, after reviewi ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jan 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Women with certain type of ovarian cancer and BRCA gene mutation have improved survival at 5 years

Among women with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer, patients having a germline (gene change in a reproductive cell that could be passed to offspring) mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes was associated with improved 5-year ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Sweeping genetic analysis of rare disease yields common mechanism of hypertension

Analyzing all the genes of dozens of people suffering from a rare form of hypertension, Yale University researchers have discovered a new mechanism that regulates the blood pressure of all humans.

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Jan 22, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

'Pulverized' chromosomes linked to cancer?

They are the Robinson Crusoes of the intracellular world -- lone chromosomes, whole and hardy, stranded outside the nucleus where their fellow chromosomes reside. Such castaways, each confined to its own "micronucleus," ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Method identifies mutations that drive genetic diseases

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, a new computational method allows researchers to identify which specific molecular mechanisms are altered by genetic mutations in proteins that lead to disease. And they ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

The link between TB and a gene mutation that causes lung cancer

Tuberculosis (TB) has been suspected to increase a person's risk of lung cancer because the pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis can induce genetic damage. However, direct evidence of specific genetic changes and the disease ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Jan 18, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Genetic composition of multicentric lung tumors appears to be similar

Multicentric carcinogenesis with the same genetic mutation appears to occur in lung adenocarcinoma, according to data presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer: Biology, Therapy and ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Jan 09, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Mutation

In biology, mutations are changes to the nucleotide sequence of the genetic material of an organism. Mutations can be caused by copying errors in the genetic material during cell division, by exposure to ultraviolet or ionizing radiation, chemical mutagens, or viruses, or can be induced by the organism itself, by cellular processes such as hypermutation. In multicellular organisms with dedicated reproductive cells, mutations can be subdivided into germ line mutations, which can be passed on to descendants through the reproductive cells, and somatic mutations, which involve cells outside the dedicated reproductive group and which are not usually transmitted to descendants. If the organism can reproduce asexually through mechanisms such as cuttings or budding the distinction can become blurred. For example, plants can sometimes transmit somatic mutations to their descendants asexually or sexually where flower buds develop in somatically mutated parts of plants. A new mutation that was not inherited from either parent is called a de novo mutation. The source of the mutation is unrelated to the consequence, although the consequences are related to which cells were mutated.

Mutations create variation within the gene pool. Less favorable (or deleterious) mutations can be reduced in frequency in the gene pool by natural selection, while more favorable (beneficial or advantageous) mutations may accumulate and result in adaptive evolutionary changes. For example, a butterfly may produce offspring with new mutations. The majority of these mutations will have no effect; but one might change the color of one of the butterfly's offspring, making it harder (or easier) for predators to see. If this color change is advantageous, the chance of this butterfly surviving and producing its own offspring are a little better, and over time the number of butterflies with this mutation may form a larger percentage of the population.

Neutral mutations are defined as mutations whose effects do not influence the fitness of an individual. These can accumulate over time due to genetic drift. It is believed that the overwhelming majority of mutations have no significant effect on an organism's fitness. Also, DNA repair mechanisms are able to mend most changes before they become permanent mutations, and many organisms have mechanisms for eliminating otherwise permanently mutated somatic cells.

Mutation is generally accepted by the scientific community as the mechanism upon which natural selection acts, providing the advantageous new traits that survive and multiply in offspring or disadvantageous traits that die out with weaker organisms.

For more information about Mutation, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.